dotHACK fullmetal alchemist
by tinystarkitten
Summary: DISCONTINUEDWhat if the FMA characters played the world? You know something good has to happen. .HackFMA crossoverish. slight AlWinry, HavocFury in later chapters, and RoyRiza hints.
1. logging in

This comes after reading a chapter and a half of the .HACK manga. Gawd, I'm obsessed. :sweatdrop:

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Username: fullmetal

Password:

Character class: Alchemist

Welcome to The World...

Edward Elric opened his golden eyes to take in the virtual world he had just landed in.

"So this is The World, eh?" He asked to no one while looking around to see if he could find his brother anywhere. He knew the game was becoming very popular, but it was Alphonse who had finally gotten him to join. Speaking of Al, where was he? He couldn't have gotten far, they had both logged on at the same time. But then again he hadn't had to the go through the whole registration process that Ed had just gone through.

"HIYA BROTHER!" a character came running up to Ed and jumped on his back, knocking the boy over. He turned onto his back to see a boy with blonde hair and a floppy hat sitting on his stomach. The hat was over one eye, knocked askew from the tackle, and he had two silver stripes on each cheek. His clothes resembled light armor and there was a long staff strapped to his back.

"Al? Will you get offa me?" Ed groaned, trying to sit up.

"I'm not Al in here brother." the boy said, "I'm Catman4576 the wavemaster!"

"Oh geez Al, Catman? Couldn't you come up with something more original?"

"It's not my fault!" Al whimpered, "It's tinystarkitten's! _SHE'S _THE ONE WHO NAMED ME!" Al shouted to the sky.

"Curse you authoress!" Edward bellowed to the heavens.

"QUIET ELRICS OR I'LL PAIR YOU BOTH WITH ARMSTRONG!" I shouted down at them.

"EEP! W-we're sorry! We won't do it again! We're not worthy!" They shouted in unison, getting on their knees and bowing.

"Aw, I'm flattered." I told them before going off to write this story.

"Um, what are you two doing?" Came a feminine voice. The brothers looked up to see a girl with long blonde hair, but no face markings. On her hands were metal wrist guards - five of them - layered on top of each other until they nearly reached her elbows. She wore a black tube top and poofy, blue pants with gray markings on the sides. Her shoes resembled ballet shoes. On her back was a large sword with dark blue markings on it.

"Um, worshipping the author." Al told the girl shyly. She was really pretty, to say the least.

"Ha. Funny. My name is Rockbell, the heavy blade." She told them, helping them both up.

"Rockbell... why does that sound so familiar?" Ed asked, stroking his non-existent goatee. "Unless... WINRY?"

"Huh? How do you know my name?" she took a second to ponder the situation. "Wait, Ed? Al? That you?" her eyes were wide with disbelief.

"Yep." Ed said confidently. Al merely nodded.

"WELL WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" Winry shouted, hitting Ed over the head with the flat edge of her sword.

"Hey, I just joined today! Don't hit me! Al's the one who's been on over a month!" Ed exclaimed, covering his head from potential near-future whacks. Winry turned on Al.

"Al? Would you care to explain why I was never informed of the fact that you played The World?" she asked threateningly, holding her sword at the ready.

"I-I didn't know that you even liked games! Let alone played the world!" Al whimpered, covering his head.

"Well Al, if you had told me, WE COULD'VE FORMED A PARTY!" she told him angrily, sword above his head.

"I'M SORRY!" Al cried.

"Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you two shut up and the three of us can form this "party" thing that you two are talking about." Ed suggested with a sarcastic tone.

"You know, that's not a bad idea shorty. I knew I befriended you for _some_ reason." Winry said, putting her sword on her back.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE COULD MISTAKEN FOR A MICROSCOPIC PEBBLE!" Ed shouted, arms flailing wildly. Winry hit him over the head again to shut him up. And it worked.

**MEANWHILE!**

A woman with blonde hair pulled onto the back of her head by a clip, stood between two virtual buildings, arms crossed and her foot tapping impatiently. Her player character was pretty. She had pale blue semi circles on her cheeks, and her shirt was light blue and airy, with dark blue patterns decorating the hems. On her arms she wore metal armguards that went up to her elbows. She wore gray pants that tucked into ankle-high boots. On her hips she had two guns, held there by loops attached her pants. However this appearance did not reflect her personality at all. The woman was impatient, demanding, and trigger happy. She even had a gun with her at all times in real life.

A hand reached out and touched the woman's shoulder. She whipped around, guns drawn, and found that she was about to shoot her partner.

"Don't ever do that again Roy." she scolded him, putting her guns away.

"Now, Now. In here my name is Flame the Alchemist, just as yours is Hawkeye the gunhand." The man said with a smirk. He was a handsome character. He had raven hair, but no facial markings to speak of. He wore a large metal chestplate with a red "X" on it. There was a black under shirt that tucked into white gloves with red alchemy circles on them. The circles allowed him to shoot flames at his enemies with just a snap of his fingers. He wore gray pants like Hawkeye's that tucked into knee-high boots.

"I don't give a damn. To me, you are Roy Mustang who, unfortunately for me, happens to work in the same department as I do." Hawkeye huffed.

"Oh come, now Riza. You shouldn't talk like that to your superior." Roy said with a mock-scolding tone.

"You don't scare me, you know." She told him, hands over her guns.

"Didn't expect you to be. Now, on to business. Did anything interesting happen today?" Mustang asked her

"Well, the only thing actually _interesting_ that happened today was that Breda got hit on by a female werewolf. He freaked out, of course, despite the fact that she was indeed human." Hawkeye said with a smirk.

"That all?" Mustang asked. He had expected at least _something_ really worth mentioning.

"Well..." Hawkeye started.

"Yes?" Roy asked. Maybe something actually had happened today for a change.

"There was a new user that joined today. Fullmetal, I believe his name is." Hawkeye informed him. Mustang fell anime style.

"WHAT'S THAT GOT TO DO WITH ANYTHING?" He shouted. Hawkeye pulled out a gun and shot at him to shut him up.

"His character class is alchemist. He would be the perfect guinea pig for that thing you've wasted my paycheck on to make." She told him, putting her gun away.

"You know, that's not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all." Roy said, an evil genius type smile slithering across his face.

* * *

Well, what do you all think? Do you like it? TELL ME!

I'm looking for five girls to put in this fic. Three to be in Ed, Al, and Winry's party and two for Roy underlings. If you ask nicely, I just may decide to put you in. There won't be any pairings, but crushes are fine ;) I need a description of the character, character class, and a BRIEF bio. If you don't know what character class you would be, I'll decide from the bio. Once again, ask nicely. :heart:

_**UPDATE!**_

I now have all the five characters I need. No more please, sorry! Thanks muchly to those that have given me characters. If they don't appear in the next chapter, they will soon. Bye for now!


	2. a few new faces

Note to all: I've only seen about two or three episodes of .HACK/Sign :sweat drop: so there isn't going to be much mention of the characters from that particular version. I've read all three volumes of legend of the twilight manga and have seen most of the anime of that version, so the fanfiction's mostly going to be based on that. I apologize to all of you that were hoping to see Tsukasa or anyone else from Sign, but I may mention them in the future if I ever get around to watching more of it. SORRY! Anyway, ON WITH THE STORY!

* * *

"VAK DON!" Called Al's voice as a monster fell before disintegrating into an infinite number of pixels.

"Good Job, Al!" Winry congratulated, patting the boy on the back.

"Thanks Winry." Al said, proud of his accomplishment. He didn't play The World for battling, only to meet others and collect items. He only battled when he had to, therefore his level was still quite low. But this time, he had actually defeated a mid level monster, even if it had been with Winry's help.

"Um yeah, that's nice for you guys, but I COULD USE SOME HELP OVER HERE!" Ed shouted at the two. Al and Winry looked over see Ed being attacked by two monsters at once. He clapped his hands together and kept trying to transmute weapons out of the ground, but as soon as he got one in his hand, a monster would destroy it.

"Hang on Ed. We're coming." Winry laughed. She seemed to find Ed's situation funny. Al, however, didn't.

"I'm coming brother!" He shouted. But before he took five steps, both of the monsters had disappeared. Al and Winry's jaws went slack.

"Wow Ed! Just one week and you can already defeat two mid level monsters at once!" Winry congratulated.

"That wasn't me." Ed told her, staring at a figure behind the disappearing pixels.

"It was me!" said a female voice. As the pixels disappeared, a girl was revealed. She had brown hair that went down slightly below the shoulders. Below her green eyes were upside-down blue triangles on each cheek. She had a blue tee-shirt with a long-sleeved lavender shirt underneath. Her long, white skirt had a lavender pattern at the hem and her blue shoes became baggy at the ankles. In her hand, she held a spiky ball that hung on a chain that was attached to a wooden stick.

"And who are you?" Winry asked, a hint of jealousy in her voice. How dare someone be better than her!

"My name's Inu the macer!" The girl said, holding up her weapon. "And judging by your appearances, you are a wavemaster," she said, pointing to Al, "a heavyblade," she pointed to Winry, "and an alchemist." she pointed to Ed, then ran up to him. "You know, I haven't seen an Alchemist before." She told him, circling and looking him up and down. "In fact, I'm the only one I've met that's one of the three new classes."

"Three new classes?" Ed asked confused.

"Yeah, you should know, considering you're one of them." Inu told him, putting her hands on her hips.

"Please forgive my brother, Inu. He only joined a week ago." Al said, running up to the girl and bowing.

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to tell you, so you know about your own character class." Inu cleared her throat authoritivly. "You see, CC corp. had been getting complaints for awhile about how boring the character classes were. Before the legendary Balmung of the Azure sky had been fired, he had confided in his underling, Reki, that he thought of three more classes that might be a good idea in the future. After getting the complaints, Reki had told the people there about Balmung's ideas. After many months of planning and rumors, the classes Alchemists, Gunhands and Macers were born."

"I see." Edward said, stroking his non-existent goatee yet again. "And how long have the new classes been around?"

"Only a couple weeks." Winry blurted before Inu could say anything. She shot an ugly look at the girl before turning around. "Now if you don't mind, I have to go. Ed, Al, I'll catch up with you two later." And in a flash, Winry had logged out.

"What crawled up her ass?" Inu said rudely.

"Eh, she doesn't like to be shown up." Ed told her. "By the way, my name is fullmetal. My real name is Ed, though. You can call me that if you want."

"And my name is Catman!" Al said enthusiastically. Inu looked at him and cocked an eyebrow.

"Call him Al." Ed whispered to her.

"Okay! Ed, Al. I got it! But what about the other girl?" Inu asked.

"Oh, that's Rockbell. Her real name is Winry though." Al informed her.

"Got it!" Inu gave the brothers a thumbs up.

"HEEEEY IIIIINUUUU!" came a voice.

"Hm? Who's that?" Al asked, looking in the direction where the voice had come from.

"Oh, just a couple of friends of mine." Inu told them.

"That's suspiciously vague." Ed said to himself.

**MEANWHILE!**

_How do I always get myself into these things?_ Hawkeye thought to herself. Roy always gave her the odd jobs that he claimed to be to busy to do himself. It was always "Oh, Riza, could you do this for me?" or "Hawkeye, this needs to get done, do you have time?" and then the man would go to lunch or out with a new girlfriend. And although this assignment seemed rather normal, she still didn't know why Mustang couldn't do the job himself. Today she was sitting at a table in a virtual restaurant, waiting for someone. And she had been, for the past hour.

"Um, Hawkeye?" came a small voice. Hawkeye looked up from her table to see a girl. She had beautiful chocolate-colored skin and her long black hair was in a braid that ended just past her shoulder blades. Her eyes were bright yellow and resembled a cat's. There was a black crescent on one cheek and another on her left arm. her snug top ended halfway down her arms and exposed midriff. her black pants were ripped down the left thigh and her ankle-high boots had rather thick heels. On her back there was a large sword.

"Ah, Dianva, the heavyblade." Hawkeye said, motioning for the girl to take a seat at her table. "You're over an hour late, do you know that?" She sent a warning look at Dianva. "If you want this job, you'll have to realize that excessive tardiness will not be accepted. I don't care how accomplished you are for your age." Dianva bowed her head.

"Yes ma'am." She said quietly. But then she looked up with a large smile. "But Mr. Mustang said that I already have the job."

"Yes, he was right. You do. But we still need to show you your partner." Hawkeye reminded the girl.

"I'm ready!" Dianva said enthusiastically.

"That's a good attitude. It'll do you well with your partner."

"Thank you ma'am!"

"Okay then. Excuse me for a few minutes while I go tell your partner that you're here." And in a flash, Hawkeye's character was gone, leaving Dianva alone for the time being.

**MEANWHILE! (AGAIN!)**

"I'm back sir!" called a male's voice. The player character of a man appeared in a flash of green lights. The wavemaster had black hair and wore glasses. On his forehead he had a turquoise diamond shape with a circle in the middle. He wore a deep red robe with a golden symbol on his chest. The ends of the sleeves folded up to reveal gold fabric underneath. He had a deep green belt around his waist in which he held about every battle item available in the world. Standing behind him was a baby grunty.

"Finally Fury. It's about time." said another man impatiently. "Did you get the information I asked for?

"W-well, I couldn't find much else than what we already know." Fury said meekly, trying to stand in front of his grunty so that his partner wouldn't notice the thing. Unfortunately, though, he did.

"Oh for _god's sake_ Fury! That thing is just a bunch of pixels! It doesn't need to be taken care of, especially when you're supposed to be working!" The man scolded his partner. "But then again, what should I care. you're the one Mustang's going to be mad at when he finds that you didn't get the information on that fullmetal character that he wanted."

"I-I'm sorry Havoc sir. It won't happen again. But it's not like I can ignore the poor thing. It makes little noises when it's hungry and it makes me want to feed it and-"

"Just... shut up." Havoc cut his partner off. The man had blonde hair that spiked up in the front. On his forehead he had a red circle with a diamond in the middle. Hanging from his mouth was a virtual cigarette complete with virtual smoke. His clothes were made of armor, plain and simple. At his side he carried a long sword, signaling that he was a blademaster.

"Sorry sir." Fury mumbled, looking at the ground. He felt his face going red in the real world and he figured it was probably doing the same in the game.

"But then again, what can I expect from a man who wears a dress?" Havoc sneered at his partner, causing the other man's face to turn an even deeper shade of red.

"It's a robe." Fury managed to squeak out almost inaudibly.

"I know Fury, I was only kidding." Havoc laughed, patting his partner's back. "Now, let's go and dig up that information on fullmetal before mustang fires us." and just like that, they were both gone.


	3. poke poke

"INU!" a girl came running up to Inu and the brothers and stopped in front of them, her hands on her knees and breathing heavily. "Me an' Amaranthus just got your mail. Hope you didn't start the monster butt-kicking without us." She looked up and noticed Ed and Al. "Who're these two?"

"Oh, hey Sora. These are my new friends, Ed and Al." Inu explained, gesturing to each brother in turn. "Ed's an alchemist." She added in a low whisper that only Sora could hear.

"Hi!" The girl waved. "My name is Sora, and I'm a heavy blade."

Sora had long, platinum blonde hair, and below her blue eyes was a black stripe on each cheek. Her pale green shirt had darker green patterns along the hems, and her over-sized blue pants nearly completely covered her black shoes. Of course, there was a large sword attached to her back.

"Say, where is Amaranthus anyway?" Inu asked Sora, turning her attention to the direction where the girl had come from.

"I went ahead without her. She said I was getting on her nerves." Sora told her friend, crossing her arms. Almost as if on cue, however, the figure of a woman appeared. As she got closer, her features became more noticeable. She had white hair and neon green eyes. Below her left eye there was an alchemy circle. She wore a long sleeved shirt that tucked into fingerless gloves, which revealed circles at the tip of each finger. Her pants poofed out then tucked into mid-calf high boots.

"You were talking about me again, weren't you?" she asked, very little expression on her face. Ed noticed the alchemy circle on her cheek.

"Inu, I thought you said I was the only one you knew who was an alchemist." He piped up.

"Oh, I meant BESIDES Amaranthus. Sorry 'bout that. I can be a bit scatter-brained sometimes." Inu explained, a large sweat drop appearing on her head.

"Hey! What's that?" Al asked suddenly, running up to Inu.

"What's what?" she asked in response.

"That funny lookin' sweat drop on your head!" Al ran up and poked it. "It's squishy!" He gasped and poked it again. Another sweat drop appeared on the girl's head.

"Hey! Another one!" Ed exclaimed, running up and poking the second one. Two more appeared, and Sora and Amaranthus ran up and poked those as well.

"Hey, they _are_ squishy!" Sora said, an expression of awe on her face.

"This is fun." Amaranthus added, smirking.

"Okay guys." Inu said in a futile attempt to get them to stop the poking. "That's enough." no difference. "CUT IT OUT!" she hollered, causing the four to fly backwards. The sweat drops had been replaced with pulse marks. Al's hand reached out, but Inu shot him a death glare and the boy promptly put it back by his side. "Well then, I invited Sora and Amaranthus to fight monsters with me today, but you idiots got ditched by your little friend, and you probably have nothing to do."

"You two should join us then." Amaranthus piped up, causing stares from the other two girls. "What?" she asked.

"You're awfully friendly today." Sora said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, what's wrong? You feel okay?" Inu asked, putting her hand on Amaranthus's forehead, even though she knew that she wouldn't be able to feel anything.

"I'm fine. I just like those two. They seem like good kids." The girl said innocently.

"Okay, well, that still doesn't mean they can join us. No offense to you," Inu said, turning to the Elrics, "Girls' day out, ya know?

"You're just mad because they were the first to poke you." Sora muttered under her breath.

"They're coming." Amaranthus glared at Inu, causing the other girl to practically shrink in size.

"O-okay." Inu whimpered.

"All right then. Come little ones." the taller woman said. Immediately she knew that was a bad choice of words.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO TINY THAT THEY COULD BE SMUSHED WITH YOUR LITTLE TOE?" Sora and Ed shouted in unison. The two looked at each other and blinked.

"TWINS!" They exclaimed together, embracing in a friendly hug.

"All right you idiots, that's enough." Amaranthus sighed, grabbing the two by the collars of their shirts and dragging them off to where there would be more monsters.

**MEANWHILE!**

Winry stomped along the street of Mac Anu, mumbling curse words under her breath.

"That stupid little... who does she think she is, showing me up like that? And in front of Al too..." The disgruntled teenager stopped as she realized what she had just said. "I mean in front of BOTH Elrics." She mumbled and continued on her unintentional quest to fill the streets of Mac Anu with foot-shaped pot holes.

A few steps down the street, however, a girl was walking along, staring into the sky. And she was walking in the direction of Winry. And since the girl was looking at the sky and Winry was glaring daggers into the ground, neither of them saw the other coming when they ran headlong into each other.

"OUCH! Who the hell?" Winry asked, sitting up from her place on the ground and rubbing her head. She saw that she had run into a girl who had very long, dark blue hair that covered her back and contrasted with her pale skin. On her forehead there was an "S" shape with dots in the curves. She wore a metallic green outfit that had golden threads and the cuffs folded up to reveal golden symbols. Winry noticed that the girl had two daggers -- gold handles with white blades. _Ah, a twinblade_. She thought.

"I-I'm so sorry!" The girl cried, rising and helping Winry up. "I didn't see you and-"

"It's okay, I didn't see you either." Winry laughed, brushing herself off. "So, what are you doing out here all alone by yourself? Don't you have any friends?"

"Um, no. Not really. If you don't mind, I need to get going." The girl said, turning around and starting in the other direction.

"Hey! Wait up!" Winry called, running up to her. "Where are you going?" The girl just started walking faster. Winry caught up and tried to match her speed, but the girl kept going faster and faster until she broke into a full-out run. Winry started running too, and they both kept running until...

SPLASH!

"Gack!" The girl thrashed about in the water, as she had run straight over the edge.

"Hold on!" Winry called. She eyed a wavemaster with an odd, large, floppy hat and grabbed her staff.

"HEY! THAT'S _MY_ RARE STAFF!" the wavemaster shouted.

"I'll give it right back in just a second!" Winry replied, dipping it into the water. The twin blade grabbed onto it and Winry pulled her up. _She's heavier then she looks._ She thought, struggling to pull the girl up. When she finally did and gave the wavemaster back her staff, the girl stood up.

"Th-thank you." She said, bowing politely. "I'm sorry though, that's the second time I've caused you trouble."

"Oh, it was no problem really." Winry said, happy that the girl was safe.

"You're so nice. Thank you." The girl said.

"Hey, what's your name anyway?" Winry asked suddenly.

"It's Hikari." the girl told her.

"Hikari. That's nice. I'm Rockbell but you can call me Winry if you want." Winry told her. Hikari nodded at that. "Hey, you said you don't have any friends. Do you want to join my party? I have two other people in it, but I don't think they'd mind having an extra member."

"Well, I don't know. I mean, I can't get on all the time, and when I do, it might not be when the rest of you are on and-" Hikari started.

"It's okay." Winry laughed. "It'll be fun, trust me."

"Well, I guess I could." the girl finally said.

"Good. I can't wait to introduce you to Ed and Al." Winry said excitedly, grabbing the girl by the wrist and dragging her off in a random direction.

**MEANWHILE!**

"So when do I meet my new partner?" A female wavemaster asked Mustang.

"Hawkeye should be here with her any moment. She just talked to me in the real world and left to get the Dianva girl. Dianva's only a teenager you know." the man informed her.

"Wow. And already working for CCCorp? She must be smart." the girl said. She had shoulder-length red hair and gray eyes, but no markings on her face. Her shirt was white and there were golden tassels hanging off the sleeves. There was a gold-colored belt around her waist which held up a white miniskirt -- the latter was probably the reason that Roy Mustang had hired her in the first place. Her shoes resembled lavender ballet slippers and she wore white knee socks. And of course she held a staff.

"Yeah she's smart. Definitely smarter then you, Kiyuu." Mustang told her with a smirk.

"What was that?" Kiyuu glared evilly at the man, who shrunk away.

"Looks like you're having fun." came a woman's voice. Kiyuu and Mustang looked up to find Hawkeye standing there, Dianva hiding behind her. "Anyway, on to business. Dianva, meet your partner, Kiyuu."

"How do you do?" Dianva asked Kiyuu shyly, stepping out from behind Hawkeye.

"Hey! Pleased to meet you. You're Dianva, right? I tell ya, you're the talk of the office. They say you're only a teenager." the red head said happily.

"Well, it's true that most kids my age are still in high school." Dianva chuckled nervously. Mustang cleared his throat authoritively and caught the attention of both girls.

"Okay girls, your first job together is to gather as much information as you can on a certain player character. His name is fullmetal and-"

"Wait, wait." Kiyuu cut her boss off. "He doesn't happen to be an alchemist, does he?"

"Well, yeah." Mustang said.

"Oh, GOD! Don't tell me you were actually serious with that plan!" she shouted, slapping her hand onto her forehead.

"Your paycheck was reduced for three months for it." He reminded her.

"Damn, you have a point. Okay, fine, we'll investigate this fullmetal person. But how exactly do we do it?" She asked him.

"That's your problem." Mustang told her rudely. He turned around and started walking in the other direction, but only got two steps before Hawkeye stuck one of her guns in his back

"Explain it Roy. I'm also quite curious as to how they are going to find anything, seeing as they aren't authorized to access the user files." She told him, not moving the gun.

"Eh heh. S-sure." he said uneasily. "Well, let's see. They'd have to work in the game, so, I don't know, maybe ask around or even try to befriend him."

"That's more like it." Hawkeye said, putting her gun back.

"But what are we trying to find out?" Dianva asked him.

"Anything useful. His age and location would be a good start, seeing as we might need him to visit CCCorp in the real world sometime." Roy said, resting his chin in one of his hands.

"Gotcha!" Dianva and Kiyuu saluted their superior and teleported out in a flash of green lights.

"How much information do you think they'll get just asking around?" Hawkeye asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Actually probably more than what's stored in the user files. You see there, we don't have any personal information. But if fullmetal is willing to tell other people, we can find out what we really need." Mustang informed her. She raised her eyebrows, but realized he was probably right.

"Do think that they'll actually befriend him?" She asked after a few moments.

"It's quite possible." Roy stated. "I have to go now. I can hear Maes talking to me in the real world."

"Wants to show you more pictures of his daughter?" Hawkeye asked. A smile had crept across her face.

"Yes." Roy sighed. "I'll see you tonight Riza." He added before logging out.

* * *

HELLO! bwahaha, my section...

If you had a WTF? moment when everyone was poking Inu: come on, don't tell me you've never wanted to poke those sweat drops or pulse marks on anime people. Now Al's done it for you!

For all you people who didn't catch it, that was Mireille's staff that Winry borrowed when she saved Hikari. Oh, and to **Luminescent Wolf**, because you didn't tell me what you wanted her name to be, I named her Hikari. In case you didn't know, it means light and I think it's a very pretty name. However, If you want me to change it, I will.

And to **Kiyuu-Chan**, you didn't tell me what Kiyuu was wearing, so I made something up, if that's all right.


	4. meeting up

"HIIIIYA!" Sora shouted, slicing a monster in two.

"Vak Don!" Came Al's voice as a monster fell, being burnt to a virtual crisp.

"Take that!" rang Inu's voice as a monster got a face full of her mace.

"Ha!" Amaranthus laughed as a monster disintegrated from her alchemy-inducing fingers.

"Gah!" Ed fell backwards, a large monster standing above him menacingly. He tried to clap his hands together and transmute something - anything - from the ground. The monster crushed the stub of a rod that was making its way up and Ed groaned. Amaranthus noticed this and jumped in front of the boy, producing a shield from the alchemy circle on her cheek. She then defeated the monster with one swift motion of her hand followed by alchemical light.

"You okay kid?" She asked, turning to Ed. The boy got up and looked her in the eyes (the height difference made it difficult, however).

"Yeah. Thanks." Ed rubbed his head and smiled at her.

"_Someone's _been busy while I was gone." Came a familiar voice behind the group. The five made an about face to see Winry, Hikari hiding behind her.

"Eh heh. H-hi Winry." Ed chuckled nervously.

"Don't 'h-hi Winry' me! What were you doing to these poor girls Ed?" Winry said, sword held over the alchemist threateningly.

"Winry! They're just our friends! Honest!" Al pleaded, trying to prevent Winry from whacking his brother.

"Friends, huh?" Winry said disbelievingly. "And stay here you!" She called back to Hikari, who was trying to sneak away. The girl obeyed.

"Yeah, _my_ friends." Inu said, crossing her arms.

"Hiya! Pleased to meet you, the name's Sora." The heavyblade greeted Winry. Winry smiled and said "hi."

"Sora!" Inu seemed shocked.

"Hello! Who are you?" Sora asked Hikari, ignoring Inu.

"Hikari. My name's Hikari." The girl said quietly. Sora spotted the girl's daggers.

"Ah, so you're a twinblade." She pointed out. Hikari nodded.

_Not much of a conversation person._ Sora thought, sweatdropping.

"Hey! Are you all just going to stand there while I get killed over here?" Called Amaranthus. The others turned to see her surrounded by monsters; not that it was any problem. She put up an alchemical shield to block the monsters in front of her while destroying the monsters behind her with one swift movement of her hand and a burst of alchemical light. She then took down her shield and killed the other monsters in front of her. Winry, Sora, Hikari, Inu, Ed, and Al all stared at her in awe.

"What do you mean get killed? You're the best out of all of us Amaranthus!" Inu told her.

"Yeah, but that's just because I actually fight the monsters instead of getting caught up in conversations." She said monotonously. "Idiots." she added under her breath.

"Come on Al, Ed." Winry whispered, grabbing the boys' wrists and heading away from the other girls. Hikari followed right behind.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Inu asked, chasing after the four.

"Hey! Wait up!" Sora called, running after them.

"Ugh, I thought I was going kick just a _little_ more monster ass." Amaranthus sighed before following everyone else.

**MEANWHILE!**

"So do you think we'll find anything on that fullmetal kid anytime soon?" Dianva asked her new partner.

"I dunno. Mustang didn't tell us much. But then again, I doubt he knew anything about the boy himself. I suppose it would help to know how long he's been playing The World. You know, to see how much time has passed to let word spread around?" Kiyuu answered.

"Ah." Dianva responded. They walked along in awkward silence for awhile. "So, um, how long have you been working for CCCorp Kiyuu?" She asked, trying to break the silence.

"Too long." the red head laughed.

"And how long might that be?"

"Long enough to have gone on enough pointless missions to last me a lifetime. Also long enough to know who's dating who."

"Really now?" Dianva's head snapped to look in the direction of her partner. "There wouldn't happen to be anything going on between Mr. Mustang and Miss Hawkeye, would there? Because that was the impression I got when-"

"Yeah, there is." Kiyuu chuckled, cutting the younger girl off. "You see, they don't want anyone to know, but the truth is, they're really crazy over each other. Breda, on the other hand, is a loser who couldn't snag a woman if his life depended on it, so he keeps porn under his desk. I caught him looking at it once, he thought he had successfully hidden it from me, but I saw it. You know, I think Farman sometimes sneaks peeks at it too occasionally..."

By now, Dianva had stopped listening. Relationships were interesting. Perverted men looking at porn wasn't.

"- but the _really_ interesting couple around here is Jean Havoc and Cain Fury." Kiyuu went on. Dianva snapped to attention again. "Surely you've seen them around. Havoc's the guy who's always smoking. His cigarettes have screwed up more than a few head-mounted displays. He's got blonde hair with this ridiculous-looking fringe in front. You've seen him, haven't you?"

"Um..." Dianva tried to remember the people she'd seen when she had visited CCCorp and the people she had been formally introduced to just this morning (it was her first day, after all). She did seem to remember a blonde man who was smoking. He had seemed nice enough when he said hello to her that morning. "Yeah, I think I know who he is."

"Heh. And Fury's the short guy with black hair and glasses. You've probably seen him smuggling some kind of new pet into the office." Kiyuu laughed.

"Uh..." Once again, Dianva wracked her brains to remember. She remembered a man with black hair and glasses, but he was rather tall and made her look at all the pictures he had of his daughter. But she remembered another man with black hair and glasses. He seemed rather nervous when Hawkeye had tried to introduce them, and Dianva could've sworn she had seen something wiggling in his coat. "Yeah, I have."

"Thought so. Well, you see, the funny thing is, it's painfully obvious how they feel about each other when they're together. Fury squirms so much you'd think he was a worm, and Havoc can't take his eyes off the boy. It's like everyone knows but them." And Kiyuu was off again. Only this time Dianva was actually interested because it wasn't about porn. After awhile, Kiyuu walked straight into someone.

"Ow!" that someone called.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" Kiyuu shouted at the person who turned out to be a boy. He had golden hair pulled into a braid and golden eyes to match. There was a red stripe over the bridge of his nose. He wore a red coat over a long sleeved black shirt and black pants that tucked into black boots. On his hands he wore white gloves.

"_You_ should watch where you're going!" The boy shouted back. Kiyuu noticed the six other people behind him.

"As a member of CCCorp, I demand that you tell me your member address!" She shouted.

"Fullmetal!" the boy shouted back. Kiyuu's and Dianva's eyes widened at the name.

"Well, I guess I can't really do anything now. Come Dianva." Kiyuu said, pushing her way past the boy. Dianva obeyed and followed. "We'll be seeing you, fullmetal." Kiyuu added, making her way through the other members of his party.

"Well, we know who we're looking for now." Dianva said once they were out of earshot of the group.

"Yep." Kiyuu agreed. And for a split second, Dianva could've sworn that her partner's face had become 100 evil.

**MEANWHILE!**

Havoc and Fury both sneezed at the same time. They were inside a cafe at Mac Anu currently, after an unsuccessful attempt at gathering information on fullmetal.

"Whose bright idea was it to allow users to sneeze in the world?" Havoc asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I-I don't know." Fury stuttered, not looking at the other man. Instead, he focused on his baby grunty which was asleep on the table. It was an adorable creature, really, and he didn't see how Havoc couldn't realize that.

"Fury." Havoc said suddenly, jarring the younger man out of his thoughts.

"U-um, yes sir?" Fury answered nervously.

"Okay, first of all, take that grunty off the table now." Havoc ordered.

"But sir-" Fury started.

"I didn't say get rid of it, I said get it off the table. I don't want it to wake up and spill anything." Fury obeyed. "Second, you don't need to call me sir right now. We're off duty." Havoc continued, smiling at the man.

"Ah, y-yes si- I mean Havoc." Fury stuttered, blushing.

"That's better." Havoc laughed. Fury dared to sneak a peek at him. The man was gorgeous, he really was. But if only he returned the love that Fury felt for him. No man that handsome could ever like another man, especially not a man like Fury, who couldn't even get a woman.

It was then, when Havoc saw Fury looking at him and the younger man darted his eyes back to the grunty, that he decided love hurts. Badly.

* * *

Christ ona cracker! I actually updated? Actually, I'm typing this particular story on my mother's old (Windows 95) laptop. So when I finish a chapter, I have to load it onto a floppy disk and transfer it to my real computer. It takes time.

You know what's creepy? When I was typing the whole "Fury moping about unrequited love" part, Toxic by Britney Spears started playing on the radio. Freaky, I know.

Kiyuu was not being a gossip, by the way. I was just using her to clear up all my pairings.


	5. hideouts and hackers

Sorry it took me so long. I finished this chapter in like, two days but then I lost me floppy disk :sweatdrop:

* * *

"Who does that girl think she is, just walking into me like that and then just casually walking off? And what the hell did she mean when she said 'we'll be seeing you, fullmetal'?" Ed grumbled as he walked along. The others looked at him with some sort of fear lurking in their eyes (except Amaranthus). 

"Does he always do this?" Sora whispered in Al's ear. Al nodded meekly, making an effort to stay behind Winry so she could protect him if Ed decided to go on a rampage. It was difficult however, as Hikari was trying to do the same thing. Sora and Inu stayed close to Amaranthus as she seemed to be completely unaware of Edward's rage.

"Do you think he'll explode and try to kill us?" Sora asked Inu.

"I don't know, maybe." Inu whispered back.

"Um, Winry? He wouldn't try to kill us would he?" Hikari whispered to her friend. Winry looked back at her and smiled.

"Don't worry about it, you can't kill anyone in your own party. Or at least I don't think so..." Winry answered as Hikari's eyes grew wide.

"Will you stop whispering back there?" Ed yelled, turning around to face his party. "I know you're all talking about me so don't even try to deny it!"

The girls and Al drew back in fear of being attacked. Well, except Amaranthus. She stayed where she was, smiling down at the boy.

"And you! You haven't said anything since we left the monster area! Not to mention you're some kick-ass woman who take down eight monsters at once!" Ed shouted, pointing at the neutral-faced Amaranthus.

"I'm not that old." She said simply, still staring down at him, smiling. "And I just don't like to talk a lot."

"And what's with that creepy smile of yours? You're always smiling at me and Al like that and it gets creepy, you know?" Ed continued. Amaranthus averted her eyes.

"You two... remind me of someone." She said quietly. Ed silenced and suddenly seemed uncomfortable. The group stood there in silence for a few minutes until Amaranthus looked back up.

"Well, are we just going to stand here doing nothing or what?" She said, here usual expression of neutral returning. The others glanced at each other before looking back at Amaranthus and nodding. "Then what are we waiting for?" She continued walking and the others followed.

After a few minutes of aimless wandering, however, the group of girls and two boys realized that they had no idea where they were going and were extremely bored.

"I'm extremely bored." Inu complained, dropping onto the ground. "Where are we going anyway?" Everyone else pondered for a moment before Winry thought of something.

"Let's go to my hideout!" She suggested.

"You have a hideout?" Inu asked disbelievingly.

"No fair!" Sora exclaimed. "I've been questing for one forever!"

Amaranthus and Hikari said nothing but stared at Winry. Hikari looked jealous and Amaranthus looked impressed.

"Winry! How come you never told me you had a hideout?" Al whined.

"How come you never told me that you played the world?" Winry asked Al.

"Um excuse me..." Ed started. Everyone looked at him. "What's a hideout?"

"Well, it's like a house that a player can buy if their rich enough. Obviously, it's a detail that Winry conveniently forgot to tell us." Alphonse explained.

"Newb." Amaranthus muttered under her breath.

"Um... okay then. I don't see what's so great about it but whatever..." Ed responded.

"Do you know exactly how rich you have to be to buy one of those?" Inu exploded. She leapt off of the ground and grabbed Ed's shoulders and started shaking them. "You have to be friggin' LOADED!"

"Exactly how long have you been playing the world Winry?" Al asked. Winry chuckled.

"Obviously long enough to save up to get a hideout." She laughed.

"Well what are we waiting for? I wanna go there! I wanna see it! I wanna know what it's like inside a hideout, I've never even been in one before!" Sora shouted enthusiastically.

"Okay then, follow me." Winry said happily.

**MOMENTS LATER!**

"Oh wow!" Sora exclaimed once inside. "It's just like I imagined it would be!" She then commenced dancing around the room, giggling like a school girl until she came to a rest on a couch.

"This is pretty nice." Amaranthus commented, sitting down in an armchair.

"I am SO jealous." Inu commented, examining a box of event items.

"W-wow Winry." was all Hikari said.

Ed and Al said nothing, but stood uncomfortably in the darkest corner they could find, being surrounded by the sea of lavender, sky blue, and pink that made up Winry's hideout.

"I guess this is why she never told us about this place." Al whispered to his brother who nodded weakly.

"What're you two doing there all by yourselves? Don'tcha wanna come look at all this cool stuff?" Sora called over to the boys.

"Uh, no, that's okay! We're fine right here..." Ed answered, sweatdropping. Al resisted the urge to poke it.

"They probably don't like the colors." Amaranthus said with a smirk.

"I think the colors are very nice." Hikari said quietly.

"So, how'd you manage to afford all this stuff?" Inu asked, walking up to a smug looking Winry.

"Hm? Oh, I just made sure to clear every event I could find and sell the items if they were uninteresting to me. One day I want to meet Balmung and thank him for making so many uninteresting items for me to sell." She answered.

"Event items alone won't buy you a hideout. I've tried." Sora piped up.

"Okay, so I also bought a few cheap items and sold 'em to newbs way overpriced." Winry admitted with a nervous laugh.

"What a devious trick." Amaranthus said from her spot in the armchair. "You know Winry, I think I'm starting to like you." She added with an evil smirk.

Winry let out another nervous laugh.

**MEANWHILE!**

"Really now? You've found fullmetal? Impressive." Flame said with a smirk. Dianva and Kiyuu grinned broadly.

"But your mission is not completed." Hawkeye reminded them.

"Yes ma'am." The girls responded in unison.

"We just thought that it would be a good idea to let you know." Dianva said.

"Well, thank you for telling us. Now all you need to do is get more personal information on him. And I highly doubt that will only take you a few hours." Mustang said with a smirk.

"Well, at least we know who our guy is, no thanks to you, only giving us his username to work off of." Kiyuu muttered.

"Hey." Mustang said in a warning tone, his fingers ready to snap. Kiyuu shut up.

"Anyway, moving on to business." Hawkeye said, putting her hand on Roy's. "We have received reports of a group of hackers calling themselves 'Humunculi'. There are seven of them, and each had to have joined when The World first came out as they are named after the seven deadly sins. This is not a mission for you two, you still need to keep your minds focused on fullmetal, but we are supposed to alert all CCCorp administrators. They have already broken the rules by altering their characters to have special abilities, but what's even worse is that they have been killing players ruthlessly. You are to be on the lookout for these hackers and report any suspicious activity to either us or Kamui, head of the debug team. She, of course, has already been putting in overtime over these players, but every little bit helps."

"Also," Roy snatched his hand back from Hawkeye's, "we are supposed to tell you, Dianva, of another player. His username is Scar, and he has been killing administrators. He is an alchemist, we know that much, but not a lot else. Those who have been killed by him said that he told them that he was killing in the name of Aura, and is on a quest to preserve The World and keep it pure." Dianva looked scared at the alert.

"W-who is Aura?" she asked. Hawkeye and Flame exchanged glances.

"Kiyuu will tell you." Mustang said before teleporting out.

"If you'll excuse me." Hawkeye said before teleporting out as well. Dianva looked at her partner questioningly. Kiyuu sighed.

"This is going to take a while..." She sighed before explaining the legend of Aura and The World.

* * *

Yay! I updated! And now more .Hack characters are going to be thrown into the mix! Okay, it's mostly going to be admins but hey... Aura's coming :sweatdrop:. And soon it will be revealed what exactly Roy wants with Ed! More yay! I'm gonna shut up now! HUZZAH! 


End file.
